Category: Issue 2

Creating order in the mind: Borges’ paradoxical mirror

  • Eduardo Mizraji
The Journal of Genius and Eminence, Volume 5, Issue 2
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JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (2) 2023 Article 7 | pages 97- 107
Issue Copyright © 2023 Tinkr
Article Copyright © 2023 Eduardo Mizraji

ISSN: 2334-1149 online
DOI: 10.18536/jge.2023.03.27

Creating order in the mind: Borges’ paradoxical mirror

Eduardo Mizraji

Group of Cognitive Systems Modeling, Biophysics and Systems Biolog y Section, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Uruguay

Abstract

In this essay we propose, based on the ideas of L. Rapkine and J. Monod on the physical reasons for aesthetic appreciation, that the interest of creative scientists in Jorge Luis Borges’ works is produced by an apparently contradictory effect: on the one hand, the serenity that these texts induce in the mind of an innovative person and, on the other, the modification of the cognitive balance that causes the complexity of these texts and that operates as a creative force. We illustrate this idea with the specific case of the story “Blue Tigers”. We show that this text by Borges, in a reader who is sensitive to it, injects information that puts the mind in a state far from the level of cognitive equilibrium. When it comes to solving a scientific problem, the search for new ways to solve the problem is enhanced by this condition in which the cognitive balance is cancelled. That is the condition in which the creation of new ideas seems possible.

Eduardo Mizraji | Group of Cognitive Systems Modeling | Biophysics and Systems Biology Section | Facultad de Ciencias | Universidad de la República | Montevideo, Uruguay
Correspondence: emizraji@gmail.com; mizraj@fcien.edu.uy | ORCID id – 0000-0001-6938-8427
Correspondence address: Iguá 4225, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

The Child Prodigy, Poet, and Scholar Uku Masing

  • Amar Annus
The Journal of Genius and Eminence, Volume 5, Issue 2
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JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (2) 2022 Article 6 | pages 80-96
Issue Copyright © 2022 Tinkr
Article Copyright © 2022 Amar Annus

ISSN: 2334-1149 online
DOI: 10.18536/jge.2022.06.02

The Child Prodigy, Poet, and Scholar Uku Masing

Amar Annus

University of Tartu, Estonia

Abstract

The poet and scholar of Estonian origin Uku Masing (1909-1985) possessed prodigious level skills in multiple domains and superior eidetic memory. A body of recently published texts and documents, especially the personal letters from the age of 18 to 25 years, allows an analysis of Masing’s autistic traits and various forms of synaesthesia. The combination of these two conditions has been demonstrated to promote the potential talents of a given individual to the exceptional levels of savant syndrome. In retrospect, Masing can be shown to have been a child prodigy and prodigious savant who was capable of very fine artistic expression in poetry. He had a wide array of special interests that formed a unique assemblage. He displayed unusual ways of self-expression and language peculiarities that can be partly explained with his autistic traits. The scope of Masing’s special interests, his literary and scholarly activities and achievements are analysed as well as various aspects of his everyday life difficulties, such as coping with the social world, anxiety and depression.Drawing on social information-processing theory and the status-and-engagement perspective, a field study investigated the pathways through which team leader humility leads to employee creativity. Using a sample of 347 high-tech workers nested in 95 teams and their supervisors, this research theorized a multilevel model with data from multiple waves and sources. The results indicated that, at the individual level, leader humility perceived by individual employees boosted the employees’ self-perceived status, which then promoted employee creativity. At the team level, leader humility created a team voice safety climate, which then had a positive cross- level impact on team members’ creativity. This bridges the creativity and the leader humility literature by extending the social information-processing perspective of leader humility to integrate this perspective with research on individuals’ desire to develop and maintain a status and positive identity. Theoretical implications of these results and practical implications for management practices were discussed.

Amar Annus | University of Tartu, Estonia | School of Theology and Religious Studies
Correspondence: amar.annus@ut.ee | ORCID id – 0000-0002-8844-6597
Correspondence address: Ülikooli 18-310, Tartu 50090
Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

“Diagnosing” literary genius: A concise look at the life and works of Alexander Pushkin

  • Yulia Furlong
  • Michael Fitzgerald
The Journal of Genius and Eminence, Volume 5, Issue 2
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JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (2) 2020 Article 4 | pages 44-58
Issue Copyright © 2021 Tinkr
Article Copyright © 2021 Yulia Furlong

ISSN: 2334-1149 online
DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.04

“Diagnosing” literary genius: A concise look at the

life and works of Alexander Pushkin

Yulia Furlong

University of Western Australia & Perth’s Children Hospital, Australia

Michael Fitzgerald

Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Abstract

This paper examined the phenomena of literary genius by providing a retrospective case study and an analysis of the creative works of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837). Taking the readers into Pushkin’s unique world, we attempted to elucidate salient points of his short life, to understand his giftedness and his creative evolution, and to solve the mystery surrounding his spectacular downfall. Building on the works of Cesare Lombroso and Howard E. Gruber, we have utilised unique phenomenological method in “diagnosing” Pushkin. We considered several hypotheses relating to a number of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, and highlighted ADHD-associated cognitive and behavioural profile which may have contributed to Pushkin’s creativity and subsequent demise. Recognizing that Pushkin was confronted by psychological tensions and interpersonal issues and both sublimated and sought resolution in his poetry, we argue that the vicissitude of his life and his literature were inextricably interrelated. The riddle of Pushkin’s literary genius prompted us to probe further into the nature of literary creativity and freedom of speech.

Yulia Furlong | University of Western Australia | Medical School | Division of Psychiatry | Perth, Australia
Perth’s Children Hospital | Perth WA 6009 | Australia | Correspondence: Yulia.Furlong@health.wa.gov.au Correspondence address: Paediatric Consultation Liaison and Gender Diversity Service, Perth’s Children Hospital, Office 2E, Perth WA 6009, Australia
Michael Fitzgerald | Trinity College Dublin | Department of Psychiatry | Dublin | Ireland
Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

An Unfortunate Boon of Genius

  • John Baxter
The Journal of Genius and Eminence, Volume 5, Issue 2
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JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (2) 2020 Article 3 | pages 37-43
Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr
Article Copyright © 2020 John Baxter
ISSN: 2334-1149 online
DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.04

An Unfortunate Boon of Genius 

John Baxter
Yale University

Abstract

In this article, possible origins for extreme creativity are explored. Among these are the capacities for concentration, curiosity, and access to resources. In addition to these stable, highly-researched topics, a lesser-researched idea of parental issues or early parental death is discussed. Several exceptionally gifted individuals have come from families rife with tragedy and strife such as Isaac Newton, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Steve Jobs. This tendency is, of course, merely correlation; direct effects of parental bereavement on children cannot be assessed with confidence. Instead, theories taken from psychological and creativity studies are used as possible explanations for this correlation. For instance, individuals who go through traumatic early parental loss may have developed cognitive defenses against adversity. When these individuals meet obstacles later in life, they are perhaps better able to solve them through their inner fortitude (Ritter et al. 2012). Genius is not guaranteed for those with rough childhoods; in fact, much research supports quite the opposite direction. Young individuals with early parental death have often been associated with delinquency (Brennan et al., 1998; Murray & Farrington, 2005). Other mechanisms of genius and contradictions to the early parental death theory are discussed.

John Baxter | Yale University | 205 Elm Street, New Haven, CT 06511
Correspondence: johnbaxter88@gmail.com | [ORCID id – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1442-0199]
Correspondence address: 6701 SW 116th Ct #209, Miami FL 33173
Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

The mathematical creativity of Ramanujan FRS (1887–1920)

  • Peter Merrotsy
The Journal of Genius and Eminence, Volume 5, Issue 2
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JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 7 | pages 75–89

Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright © 2020 Peter Merrostsy

ISSN: 2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.07

The mathematical creativity of
Ramanujan FRS (1887–1920)

Peter Merrotsy

The University of Western Australia

Ramanujan, February 1919 (Source: Trinity College Library)

Ramanujan, February 1919 (Source: Trinity College Library)

Abstract

The occasion of the centenary of his death provides a poignant opportunity to reflect on the mathematical creativity of Ramanujan, on the cultural and social milieu in which he grew up, and on the educational experiences that informed his development. Attention is drawn to the deep nature of his discoveries in number theory, set alongside a sketch of the humble person who created so many wild and fantastic theorems.

Peter Merrotsy | The University of Western Australia | Graduate School of Education | The University of Western Australia

M428, 35 Stirling Highway | Crawley WA 6009 | Correspondence: peter.merrotsy@uwa.edu.au

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

Music and embodied creative space

  • Zvonimir Stephen Nagy
The Journal of Genius and Eminence, Volume 5, Issue 2
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JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 6 | pages 64–74

Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright © 2020 Zvonimir Stephen Nagy

ISSN: print/2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.06

Music and embodied creative space

Zvonimir Stephen Nagy

Tarleton State University

Abstract

This article places the compositional work of Johann Sebastian Bach in the context of present day practice of creating music. It uses images and places from the art of memory to the act of making music in order to closely examine the relationship between musical creativity and embodiment. While focusing on the central hypothesis that exposure to specific musical practices leads to the formation of multimodal creative agency, an argument is made for the emergence of an embodied creative space. The embodiment of musical creativity is defined as a cognitive and performative causality: a relationship between the cause and effect when composing, performing, or listening to music. Expanding on this model, music making is further considered to be an embodied activity that stems from the causality of these interde-pendent attributes of creativity: the cognitive actions controlled and sustained by our mind, and the performative interactions mediated by our body and the environment. By exploring the actions and interactions commonly associated with composing and performing music, this article defines the embodied creative musical space as an interactive agency that lives at the threshold of cognition and performativity. As a result, the nature of musical creativity as an embodied, lived experience extends the social and collaborative concepts of creativity, as it becomes an interactive creative contingency. Delivered from the perspective of a composer, performer, and music scholar, the paper contributes to the growing interdisciplinary discourse on musical creativity.

Keywords: musical creativity, embodiment, memory, creative space, musical composition and
performance.

Zvonimir Stephen Nagy | Tarleton State University (Texas A&M University) | College of Liberal and Fine Arts, Stephenville, Texas, United States | Correspondence: znagy@tarleton.edu

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and, there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

A Visual Epistemology of Readymade

  • Christophe Schinckus
The Journal of Genius and Eminence, Volume 5, Issue 2
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JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 5 | pages 53–63

Issue Copyright 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright 2020 Christophe Schinckus

ISSN: 2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.05

A Visual Epistemology of Readymade

Christophe Schinckus

Taylor’s University, Malaysia

Abstract

The enunciation of the words “All” “Ready” “Made” auditory forms the adverb “Already” that actually defines the essence of a readymade. This article presents several intertextual recontextualisations of this notion are proposed through a re-narrativization of readymade (wordy) components. This collection has no other intention that unloading the concept of readymade by using art to think about art and acknowledging therefore the art’s capacity for self-reflection and auto-theorizing in line with recent call for the development of an artistic research.

Keywords: Readymade, Enunciation, Duchamp, Differance

Christophe Schinckus | The University of Georgia | 254 Park Hall, Athens, GA 30602-6205.

Correspondence: christophe.Schinckus@taylors.edu.my

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

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Dancing the digital age: a survey of the new technologies in the choreographic process

  • Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza
  • Dr. Adesola Akinleye
The Journal of Genius and Eminence, Volume 5, Issue 2
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JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 4 | pages 37–52

Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright © 2020 Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza & Dr. Adesola Akinleye

ISSN: 2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.04

Dancing the digital age: a survey of the

new technologies in the choreographic process

Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza

The Latvian National Ballet

Dr. Adesola Akinleye

Middlesex University

Abstract

This article considers fifty-eight selected dance works created during the time period of 2000-2018. In doing so the work of renown artists Wayne McGregor, Garry Stewart, Dawn Stopiello and Bill T. Jones have been used as case studies to highlight how the eminence of these choreographers has engaged dance as a meeting point and merging point for humanity and ‘New technology’. The article reviews the impact of new technologies as an essential tool in the creative processes of dance and exploration of the moving-body. Innovative technologies in the 21st Century have offered choreographers new capacities for the creation of movement. These explorations into the performance space advance insights into broader questions of the human body at the intersection of arts and science. The choreographers’ exploration of the dancing form cultivates questions about how the human body extends, begins, ends and is present. As the digital age proposes new ways to (re)imagine the communication and impact of the human body we suggest these artistic collaborations also offer insights into commonalities and places of exchange across notions of art versus science. These choreographers inter-disciplinary artistic endeavors, into how the moving body transacts and is harnessed as a mode of expression reveal deeper possibilities of the ontology of the lived-experience.

Keywords: Choreography, Collaboration, Dance, Digital Age, New Technology, Place

Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza | The Latvian National Ballet, Latvia | preciadoazanza@gmail.com

Dr. Adesola Akinleye | Middlesex University, London | A.Akinleye@mdx.ac.uk | [ORCID id – 0000-0001-7342-8292]

Corresponding author: Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza | preciadoazanza@gmail.com

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

The Finnish Poet Pentti Saarikoski (1937-1983)

  • Amar Annus
The Journal of Genius and Eminence, Volume 5, Issue 2
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JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 3 | pages 22–36

Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright © 2020 Amar Annus

ISSN: 2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.03

The Finnish Poet
Pentti Saarikoski (1937-1983)

Amar Annus

University of Tartu, Estonia

Abstract

The poet Pentti Saarikoski (1937-1983) was one of the most significant Finnish writers of the 20th century. He was also a prolific translator, who received many prestigious awards for his literary production. Throughout his life Saarikoski showed evidence of a certain psychopathology and mental complications for which he was twice hospitalized. The paper argues that Saarikoski possessed a large number of autistic traits and elevated symptomatology of ADHD. The traits of these conditions are often found in persons with high creative achievement. The works of the psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald provide the theoretical background, on which the biographic evidence from Saarikoski’s childhood and adult life is analyzed. The identity diffusion under which the poet suffered can be shown as beneficial to this level of creativity. Saarikoski was an autistic writer, who visualized his poetry which eventually provided him with artistic identity. In addition to autistic traits and high intelligence, Saarikoski also sought novelty and sensation, which can be attributed to his ADHD traits.

Amar Annus | University of Tartu, Estonia | School of Theology and Religious Studies
Ülikooli 18-310, Tartu 50090 | Correspondence: amar.annus@ut.ee

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

The Legendary Creativity of Hayao Miyazaki and Shigeru Miyamoto as a Product of Metacognitive Awareness, Family, and Environment

  • Mike McClelland
The Journal of Genius and Eminence, Volume 5, Issue 2
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JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 2 | pages 15–21

Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright © 2020 Mike McClelland

ISSN: 2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.02

The Legendary Creativity of
Hayao Miyazaki and Shigeru Miyamoto

as a Product of Metacognitive Awareness,
Family, and Environment

Mike McClelland

University of Georgia

Abstract

This article compares two eminent programmers, Shigeru Miyamoto and Hayao Miyazaki, and their respective works, the video game The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time and the film Princess Mononoke. It discusses their creativity in the context of their above-average access and opportunity to metacognitive skill development, ideation, production, and influence in relation to methods recommended in the research on creativity and genius. This article also looks at how their individual creativity was nurtured by family and scholarship, influenced by birth order and parental relationships, and enhanced by their geographic location and work place. The article concludes that all of these factors combined to allow Miyamoto and Miyazaki to reach legendary levels of creativity, with remarkable similarity to one another.

Keywords: Creativity, Metacognition, Gaming, Anime, Japan

Mike McClelland | Department of English | The University of Georgia | 254 Park Hall, Athens, GA 30602-6205

Email: michael.mcclelland@uga.edu | Twitter: @magicmikewrites

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.